Bipartisan Health Care Act

S2819 — Head Start for America's Children Act

This bill would expand and modernize Head Start to serve more infants and toddlers, require more year‑round and extended‑day options, and strengthen mental‑health, disability, and Native language supports. - Families and children: Would broaden eligibility to include families at or below 60% of the State median income and explicitly cover homeless children, foster care children, and children with disabilities. It would add mental‑health screening during home visits and push many center‑based programs toward full‑calendar‑year operation by Sept. 30, 2027 with defined exemptions. - Early childhood workers and providers: Would expand Early Head Start provider eligibility and prioritize partnerships with Tribal, minority‑serving, and Hispanic‑serving institutions. It would raise staff training expectations, require wage and benefits comparability reporting, and tie a three‑year teaching commitment to certain loan repayment rules. - Native American, Native Hawaiian, and migrant/seasonal programs: Would institutionalize Tribal and Native Hawaiian participation in governance, fund language and cultural preservation, bar non‑Native grantees for Native programs, and exempt these programs from the year‑round requirement while reserving a 4.5% grant pool for them. Would authorize a FY2026 baseline of $144.9 billion and multi‑year targeted reservations including $4.4 billion for extended operations and $300 million for slot conversions, thereby increasing federal spending.

S2823 — FAMILY Act

Creates a national paid family and medical leave insurance program that would pay monthly benefits to people who take caregiving or medical leave. The program centers administration at the Social Security Administration and sets eligibility, benefit formulas, state grant rules, and data-sharing to prevent fraud. - Families: People taking leave for caregiving or a serious health condition would get monthly wage-replacement benefits based on a tiered formula that starts at 85% for low wages and steps down for higher earnings. Initial benefit thresholds in 2026 include $1,257 and $3,500 and the law sets a minimum and maximum monthly benefit. - Workers and applicants: Eligibility would depend on wages or self-employment income over the most recent eight quarters with an initial earnings test of $2,000 in 2026. Benefit periods are measured over a year, applications can request retroactive coverage up to 365 days, and the bill requires certifications and appeals processes. - States, employers, and administration: The bill preserves and coordinates with state leave laws by creating a "legacy State" category and an annual grant program starting in 2027 for qualifying States, with up to 7% allowed for administrative costs. It would create an Office of Paid Family and Medical Leave inside SSA to run the program, share data with federal and state partners, and require periodic GAO reviews.

S2763 — Keep Billionaires Out of Social Security Act

Insulate the Social Security Administration from political interference and fund its operations. This bill would limit political appointee access to beneficiary systems, require career-led internal offices, and create new funding for customer service and grants. - Keeps SSA field office presence and staffing at January 1, 2025 levels and limits closures. It requires maintained live-operator access, improved phone metrics within 12 months, expanded online applications, and codifies overpayment recovery of up to 10 percent of a benefit or $10 per month. - Creates grant programs for disability advocacy and local assistance. It authorizes $25.0 million for State protection and advocacy grants for FY2026–2030 and $15.0 million per year for FY2026–2030 to fund at least 10 community grants annually, with minimum awards of $500,000 and required beneficiary representation on governance boards. - Restructures SSA governance and funding rules. It removes SSA from Department of Government Efficiency oversight, restricts political access to beneficiary data with civil and criminal penalties, reestablishes three Deputy Commissioner-led internal offices, sets an annual appropriation formula equal to 1.2 percent of specified benefit payments beginning FY2026, requires Medicare administration funding from HI and SMI trust funds, and creates a $2.0 billion Customer Experience Fund for FY2026–FY2035 while excluding SSA administrative costs from certain budget enforcement calculations. The bill would authorize significant new administrative spending and dedicated funding mechanisms and would change how SSA administration is counted in federal budget enforcement.

S2231 — GLOBE Act of 2025

U.S. strategy to protect LGBTQI rights abroad. This bill would create diplomatic tools, funding, and legal measures to document abuses, support civil society, and restrict entry for perpetrators. - For LGBTQI people and defenders: Would establish a Global Equality Fund to provide grants, emergency aid, and technical support and a USAID-led LGBTQI Global Development Partnership to back leadership, entrepreneurship, and exchanges. It would explicitly fund protection from medically unnecessary intersex interventions. - For perpetrators and accountability: Would require the President to publish an unclassified list within 180 days and update it biannually. Persons on the list and their immediate family would be inadmissible to the United States and face visa revocation. - For U.S. policy and programs: Would create a Special Envoy and a permanent USAID Senior LGBTQI Coordinator, require LGBTQI training for PEPFAR partners and U.S.-supported law enforcement academies, and direct annual strategic reviews to prioritize decriminalization and targeted programming.

S51 — Washington, D.C. Admission Act

This bill would admit the District of Columbia as the State of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, giving its residents full congressional representation. It would also carve out a separate federal 'Capital' around core federal buildings and set a staged transition for courts, services, and federal property. - Residents: District residents would gain two Senators and one Representative immediately upon admission and the current non‑voting Delegate office would be repealed. - Territory and federal limits: A defined Capital area including the Capitol, White House, Supreme Court, and adjacent federal lands would remain under U.S. title or jurisdiction and generally would not be subject to state taxation except where Congress permits. - Courts, justice, and transition supports: The bill would keep federal prosecution support, U.S. Marshals services, pretrial and public defender arrangements, and Bureau of Prisons housing rules during transition; it would provide a temporary Federal Medical Assistance Percentage uplift for five years and establish an 18‑member Statehood Transition Commission to oversee the change.

S3869 — Healthy Families Act

National earned paid sick time. This bill would create a federal framework requiring covered employers to provide paid sick leave that accrues at 1 hour per 30 hours worked and can be used for personal illness, caregiving, preventive care, or needs related to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking. - Families: Parents and caregivers can use paid sick time to care for children or other covered family members, attend medical appointments, or address safety and legal needs related to domestic violence or stalking. - Workers: Employees earn 1 hour per 30 hours worked, can use leave after 60 days of employment, and may use up to 56 hours per year unless an employer offers a higher cap. - Employers and federal staff: Employers that employed one or more employees for 20 or more workweeks must comply and must post notices, keep records, and follow certification and confidentiality rules. The Secretary of Labor can investigate violations and pursue civil remedies, and the bill explicitly covers entities like the Government Accountability Office and the Library of Congress.